Florida axes 500 canker workers

About 50 of those who lost their citrus-eradication jobs worked in Orlando.

February 3, 2006|By David Fleshler, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

About 500 Florida workers -- including 50 in Orlando -- lost their jobs Thursday as the Florida Department of Agriculture closed down its citrus canker-eradication program.

The department gave the employees two weeks' notice late Thursday afternoon, in an announcement that came as little surprise now that the federal government has pulled its financial support from the campaign against the disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month stopped funding the 10-year-old tree-cutting campaign, saying hurricanes had spread citrus canker so widely that it would be impossible to wipe out.

Surveys found the 2005 hurricanes had spread canker to an additional 168,000 to 220,000 acres of commercial groves.

"I don't think this came as a shock or a surprise to anyone," said Mark Fagan, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture. "Certainly a disappointment, but not a shock or surprise."

The workers, who generally made $10.13 an hour, went house-to-house to look for infected trees. Some have been with the program since the eradication campaign began in 1995.

In addition to the 300 laid off in Plantation and the 50 in Orlando, the department announced it was laying off 150 other workers in Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and Miami.

The layoff is among the biggest in the region in recent memory, but it comes at a time when South Florida's economy is sizzling and employers are desperate for workers.